Quickies

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A round-up of news items, columns, articles and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.





Of course, he did:

Sean Stone, son of American Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, said on Wednesday that Islam is the religion of justice and equality.

'Unfortunately, those displaying grievances over the injustice imposed by the capitalist and liberal governing system in the worldwide Occupy protests are not aware that they would not achieve their goals in the absence divine religions and Islam as well,' Sean said.

Not to mention being the religion of stonings, honor killings and genital mutilation. So, yeah, maybe Islam and Occupy is a good fit.







Did the Catholic Church paint themselves into a corner with respect to the contraceptives controversy?

Here is what Cardinal Bernardin said in the Gannon Lecture at Fordham University that he delivered in 1983:

Those who defend the right to life of the weakest among us must be equally visible in support of the quality of life of the powerless among us: the old and the young, the hungry and the homeless, the undocumented immigrant and the unemployed worker.

When you start equating the rights of the unborn to clothing the homeless, you start backing yourself into some morally untenable situations.

Selling out to social justice will do that for you. Go ahead and read the whole excellent piece at Ricochet.






Is it really for the kids? We start watching our backside whenever we hear about legislation couched in that manner.

Leslie at Temple of Mut wonders why her children and church are being weaponized against her.






Here's B-Daddy on the Greek debt crisis:

But let's also be clear about the game being played by the rest of the EU. An anonymous commenter previously posted that it is not really that big a deal if the Greeks default, the worry is the example set and the impact to banks. Much of the worry has been about the spread of bank failure if Greek default causes Italian and Spanish bond yields to rise. Once again, too big to fail leads to irrational economic policy. No one wants to learn this lesson, not the U.S. and not the Europeans. Heck even the Chinese prop up their banks with enforced savings and below market interest rates for the working stiff. So instead of too big to fail, why don't we require ever increasing capital reserve requirements as banks become larger? That would make it harder for big banks to leverage access to cheap capital from the Fed to make easy money, but that should be their problem.

No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't be mistaken if you sensed a complete lack of seriousness, worldwide, when it comes to making hard decisions with respect to sovereign debt. It's 10 PM, the final exam is tomorrow but everbody in the dorm is munching out on Hot Pockets and playing Mortal Combat.





W.C. Varones on a potential leading economic indicator: runs on safe deposit boxes.





Fed up with the current state of the GOP primaries, Sarah B. wonders: Gov. McDonnell, Where For Art Thou?

For you Romney fans out there, the Governor of Virginia does indeed have great hair.







Here's Sir Charles of Doo Doo Economics on that post-constitutional notion of "freedom":

This is why the wisdom of America's founders is so profound. We are supposed to be a society where people on their unique paths are free to join or separate in the pursuit of happiness. Even if you take a dead end job, you have the opportunity to become your own boss through individual effort. Unions, governments and other tyrants should not control the fate of you, your property or your hopes and dreams.

We are here for a fleeting moment in time. Forge your own path or join with us who wish to ensure future liberty. Whatever you decide, do not give up, do not surrender, and do not lose your dreams. Andy Whitfield pursued his happiness and contributed to freedom, so can you.

After a months-long absence Secular Apostate is back. Check out his most excellent blog at the link.




OK, gang. That's probably it for today. We hope to enjoy the remainder of our 3-day weekend so we'll most likely give the staff the rest of the day off and see everybody tomorrow.

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